Tag Archives: usps

I thought that the USPS was in financial trouble because they’d over-promised pensions. Nope. It turns out that a law passed by Congress in 2006 requires the USPS to save up enough money to pay 100% of their pension obligations for the next 75 years by 2016. That’s unheard of. So why require that? To break the back of the USPS union. The same law prohibits the USPS from engaging in any business activity other than strictly postal services, so they can’t even innovate their way out of this. →

New York Times: Climate Scientists Hampered in Study of 2011 Extremes“'I’ve been a meteorologist 30 years and never seen a year that comes close to matching 2011 for the number of astounding, extreme weather events,' Jeffrey Masters, a co-founder of the popular Web site Weather Underground, said last month. 'Looking back in the historical record, which goes back to the late 1800s, I can’t find anything that compares, either.'”

Wikipedia: J. W. Westcott IIThis little boat, sailing out of Detroit, is the world's only post office boat that delivers mail to other ships under sail. It's got its own ZIP code: 48222. There can't be very many post offices that actually come to you.

Wikipedia: “A” size illustrationThis is a simple chart demonstrating how “A” sizes of paper (e.g., an A1 sheet is similar in size to an 8.5"x11" sheet) are sized, from A0–A8. It's a golden spiral! I'm really impressed by the elegance of this.

USPS Postal Addressing StandardsEver wondered what the proper format is for an address on an envelope? It turns out that it’s very specific. Don’t put “Suite 100” on its own line—it goes on the same line as the street address; if offsetting it with a hash sign, leave a space after the #, as in “123 E. Main St # 100.” Don’t put a comma after the city name. Punctuation should be omitted (“St”, not “St.”). It goes on.

Save The WordsFrom the Oxford University Press comes this website that promotes words in danger of dying out unless people start using them again. "Sputcheon," "tortiloquy," "exlineal," and "jecorory" are just a few of hundreds that make the list